Their petition having had no effect, on the 10th of September, 1618, the city of Rotterdam sent a deputation to the States of Holland, praying that Grotius and the other persons accused might be tried according to the custom of the country.
But the States themselves were under oppression.
Grotius's wife petitioned[92] for leave to continue with her husband whilst his cause was depending; but this favour was denied her.

On his falling ill, she again pressed to be allowed to visit him, they had the cruelty to hinder her: she offered not to speak to him but in presence of his guards; this was also refused.

Thus all the time of his confinement at the Hague, no one was permitted to see him, even when he lay dangerously ill.
We may judge to what length his enemies carried their blindness and fury, by the following passage related by Selden[93].

When Grotius was arrested, some who bore him ill-will, prevailed with Carleton, Ambassador from Great Britain at the Hague, to make a complaint against his book _Of the Freedom of the Ocean_: the Ambassador was not ashamed to maintain that the States ought to make an example of him, to prevent others from defending an opinion that might occasion a misunderstanding between the two nations.

Carleton and his advisers were the dupes of this contemptible step: the States General paid no regard to his complaint.